Sonic 3

Adding a bit of pathos and depth to the franchise with the addition of Shadow (Keanu Reeves), Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is easily the best film of the franchise. A large chunk of the film is dedicated to revealing the tortured origins and motives of the games' famous antihero consumed with vengeance following his escape from the G.U.N. prison facility where he's been kept in suspended animation for the last 50 years. Reeves turns out to be a great choice to voice the character whose less murdery side is shown in a series of flashbacks highlighting his friendship with Maria Robotnik (Alyla Browne) which ended in tragedy prior to his incarceration.

The movie also somewhat inexplicably adds Krysten Ritter in a role that is both too large for a cameo but too inconsequential to have much impact. It's a bit of a headscratcher as either this bit role got expanded once Ritter was cast or an important subplot seems to have been cut from the final film. The rest of the cast and action runs similar to both Sonic and Sonic 2. We see Team Sonic in action with Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessey), and Knuckles (Idris Elba) all working together to stop Shadow with Sonic's rash actions causing additional conflict as well.

James Marsden and Tika Sumpter reprise their roles as Sonic's human friends, with Natasha Rothwell and Shemar Moore also getting shoehorned in. Although, aside from our baddies, the humans are given much smaller roles this time around. Jim Carrey returns as Dr. Ivo Robotnik, but also does double-duty playing the elder Dr. Gerald Robotnik under a heavy bit of makeup. The dual role is fun but adds to a bit too many extended gags (which was a problem with both of the previous two films as well).

Shadow, and less reliance on the human characters, turns out to have been just the right mix to create a pretty fun film that relies on various canon and offers fans some game-stylized moments, but is primarily driven on the emotions of the characters. Carey's antics can go a bit long at times, but his zaniness does provide some laughs and he's cartoonish enough that I'd almost call him an honorary GCI character. And it doesn't appear that the series is slowing down any time soon with the audience giving huge applause to both the mid-credit and post-credit sequences teasing what's coming up next for Sonic and friends.

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• Title: Sonic the Hedgehog 3
• IMDb: link